Love and Shadow
by Strike26
Summary: As Sakura is about to tell Naruto something that will change both of their lives she is kidnapped by two mysterious strangers. What will Naruto have to do to get her back and will both of them be able to over come this new danger together.
1. Chapter 1

After a long hiatus here is my latest story

This story is along an alternate timeline where Naruto chose Sakura instead of Hinata (this was always my favorite pairing)

I do not own Naruto; the villains are going to be characters that I make up. Forgive me if the characters act a little oc.

Ch.1: Danger that Lurks in Shadow:

As Naruto stood among the faces of the great Hokage of Konoha, he could not help but think about what had led him to this moment; the danger, the heart ache, and the adventure that had led him to become the Seventh Hokage. After the defeat of Madara Uchiha Naruto had been concerned about what came next. Would he finally be able to realize his dream of becoming Hokage or would he merely receive praise for a time and then have things return to normal. He had advanced so far but it would not mean a thing if nothing changed.

Fortunately for Naruto the question of whether things would change was answered quickly. Several months after the battle Naruto was sitting in his apartment getting ready to go to bed when a he suddenly heard a knock at the door; to his surprise, it was Sakura who was standing in front of him.

"Hey Sakura, what brings you hear at this time of night?" said Naruto. His pink haired crush stood silent looking left to right and fidgeting with her hands, almost like she wanted to ask him something important. They both stood there for a time neither one really sure as to what to say. "May I come in please?" Sakura said, never meeting Naruto's eyes. "Sure thing Sakura, you know I can never say no to you." Stepping aside Naruto gestured to the chairs that were next to his old table.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" said Naruto rifling through his fridge to find something that would hopefully make Sakura want to talk. "No thanks Naruto" Said Sakura. "I just really need to talk to you about something important, something that I should have done some time ago." said Sakura as she stood up from her seat with a look of determination on her face. Naruto was growing more and more concerned, Sakura was behaving strangely.

"What is the matter Sakura? You are acting really weird tonight." said Naruto as he walked back over to the table. Setting down the milk that he had grabbed from the fridge, as he did this Sakura quickly took his hands in hers. "Listen Naruto, I need you to just be quiet and listen to what I have to say. I am trying to tell you that after everything that has happened I have realized who has really been there for me all along." Sakura squeezed Naruto's hands tighter and tighter as she spoke like she was afraid that he would get away if she let go.

"What are you trying to say Sakura?" said Naruto his heart starting to pound faster and faster as he hoped the girl of his dreams would say what he hoped she was about to say.

As the couple stood in the small apartment shadows moved in the night of Konoha, arriving outside of Naruto's apartment. "Is that her?" said one of the shadows pointing to Sakura. "Of course you idiot, who else in this dump of a village has pink hair?" said his partner "Now let's move, the boss is waiting." Taking out a small ball the shadow leader revealed a small ball with a strange symbol on the front, "this should do the trick. Meanwhile the two shinobi were unaware of what was going on outside.

Taking a final breath Sakura looked into Naruto's blue eyes and said "Naruto, I want to tell you that I," suddenly a small object came bursting through the window with a crash. Before either Shinobi could react the object began to emit a strange purple gas. "What the heck is this stuff, I can't seem to focus" said Naruto his mind beginning to cloud. "I don't know Naruto," said Sakura, "but we need to get out of here before… before", Sakura did get a chance to finish before she collapsed. Naruto tried to reach her before she fell but he soon followed suit.

As they lay there the two shadows entered the apartment. "That sure was easy huh Kino?" said the first shadow man. "Of course Daigus, the boss made the gas himself; now help me get the girl out of here." said Kino. Picking up Sakura the two shadow ninja leapt into the night.

To be continued:

So this is the first chapter, I hope that you all enjoyed it. I appreciate reviews and will work on getting the next chapter in as soon as possible.


	2. Chapter 2: An Enemy Revealed

Here it comes, the next chapter in a tale of Love and Shadow:

And now you will find out the identity of the mysterious Boss.

I do not own Naruto (even though I wish I did).

Chapter 2: An Enemy Revealed

"Sakura?" Naruto as he slowly started to regain consciousness. He remembered how Sakura was about to tell him something important and then everything went dark. Slowly Naruto got up and realized that there was something missing from his apartment, Sakura. Quickly Naruto rushed out of his apartment and began to jump from roof to roof looking for the pink haired shinobi. After several hours with no success Naruto was getting desperate, "Where are you Sakura?" quickly realizing that there was someone who could help him to track Naruto rushed to the Inuzuka compound.

After arriving at the Inuzuka compound Naruto was quickly escorted to where Kiba was. "I guess being the hero of the Fourth Great Ninja War has some advantages." though Naruto as he arrived to the families main kennels where Kiba was tending to the dogs alongside Akamaru.

"Hey Naruto, what brings the Leaf's great hero to my humble home?" shouted Kiba as he moved to shake Naruto's hand. Kiba had not changed much since the end of the war; he still acted like there wasn't a care in the world. Akamaru was a different story, he had aged a bit and was not quite as fast as he used to but still looked like he could take out anyone he deemed a threat to Kiba or his family.

"I need to your help Kiba. Sakura has gone missing and I think that she has been kidnapped." Naruto told Kiba of how he and Sakura had been in his apartment and then the mysterious object had burst through his window and sprayed the gas that had knocked the both of them out. "Can you and Akamaru help me?" Naruto pleaded with Kiba.

"Of course I can help you Naruto. What kind of friend would I be if I could not help a friend get his girl back; however, Akamaru is too old for this kind of work I will have to use some of my other dogs." said Kiba.

"Thank you Kiba, we have to hurry they have a good size head start." Kiba quickly assembled his three best trackers. "I think that we should start at your apartment. This way the dogs can get the scent of the people that attacked you in addition to Sakura's." said Kiba. After saying goodbye to his family Kiba and Naruto returned to Naruto's apartment to hopefully pick up the trail they needed. After they arrived at the apartment Naruto noticed that there was a group of Anbu guards outside his apartment.

As they got closer a figure emerged from the apartment; "Kakashi, what are you doing here?" both of them shouted. It was strange for the Hokage to be seen outside his office since all he seemed to do these days was paperwork. "Now is that anyway to address your Hokage? Especially when he is the one person who knows who you are looking for." tossing a small object to Naruto.

Naruto recognized the object from earlier Naruto asked Kakashi if he knew what this was. "I do indeed Naruto, though I had hoped to never see that symbol again."

In a secret base in the former Land of Sound:

Kino and Daigus slowly entered the main hall where a figure in a white lab coat awaited them. The man was messing around with a console never once looking up from his work. "We got the girl Lord Tsumi" said Kino. "That is good; the plan is coming along quite nicely." said the man. He pressed a button on the console which caused a screen to turn on revealing an unconscious Sakura. "She is in excellent condition and will help us to realize our dream".

"You got that right Tsumi." said Daigus. "Soon all those Konoha wretches will…" suddenly a bolt of shadow flew from Tsumi's hand slamming Daigus into the far wall. "How dare you address me like that you impertinent fool." shouted Tsumi, rage practically shooting from his eyes. "You are lucky that your shadow cloak ability has been of some use to me or I would have sent you to the abyss long ago."

"I am sorry my Lord please do not send me there I promise that I will remember from now on." pleaded Daigus as he struggled to his feet. He should have known that would happen, Tsumi was one of those people that were easily angered by any sign of disrespect. Daigus also knew that the abyss was one place of unspeakable horrors, definitely a place that one wanted to avoid.

"So what is the next step Lord Tsumi?" said Kino stepping closer to the console display.

Turning back to the monitor Tsumi muttered "Now we begin the harvest."

To be continued…

So I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. I also hope that you guys like the villain, his motivations and abilities will become clear in the next chapter. As always reviews are welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Naruto

Chapter 3: The Pursuit.

In Konoha:

As Kakashi was explaining to Naruto about the mysterious ball that they had found at his apartment, Naruto could not help but feel an increasing sense of dread about the fate of Sakura. Apparently the symbol belonged to an ancient clan of ninja who could use the long forgotten art of Shadow Flare. This kind of ability made them incredibly hard to find due to their ability to hide where most people tended to over look.

"Naruto? Naruto!" Kakashi shouted, startling Naruto out of his contemplation. "Oh sorry Kakashi, you were saying." said Naruto.

Kakashi sighed and continued with his explanation. "As I was saying the last time that this clan appeared we were barely able to fight them off. It was mainly thanks to your father Naruto that we were able to force them out of the Land of Fire." Kakashi paused to look out the window of the Hokage Mansion. "However, their leader Tsumi vowed to return and destroy everything that stood in his way. We believed this to be an idle threat by a defeated foe, but it appears we were wrong."

"Who cares about any of that, we should be out there searching for them! Who knows what they may be doing to Sakura." said Naruto. "Naruto is right. With my dogs we can track them to anywhere." said Kiba. It was clear that both of them were not going to sit tight and wait for others to find Sakura; so Kakashi agreed that the both of them were to locate and have one of Naruto's shadow clones to report the location to Kakashi who would then send in a force to back them up.

As Kiba and Naruto approached the gates to the village Kakashi's parting words to them echoed in their ears; "Make sure that you report back to me as soon as you find them, do not engage them by yourselves."

"Do you think that these guys are really as dangerous as Kakashi made them out to be?" said Naruto. Knowing that it did not matter how dangerous this opponent may be, Naruto still wanted to be prepared or else he would be of no use to Sakura when they found her. "Who cares? You want to get Sakura back don't you?" said Kiba.

"Of course I do!"said Naruto.

"Then what are we waiting for!" shouted Kiba with his signature grin plastered on his face. Signaling to his hounds, Kiba instructed them to search for Sakura's scent due to the fact that Shadow Clan had somehow managed to leave no trace of their own. Both shinobi proceed to follow the hounds, knowing that they were racing against the clock to find Sakura.

At the layer of the Shadow Clan:

Tsumi continued to watch the monitor that showed the chamber that housed Sakura, but something was different now. Sakura was now hooked up to a machine that appeared to be draining her chakra. As the unconscious shinobi's chakra was slowly being drained out of her a smile spread across the Shadow Clan leaders face. "Soon we will have what we need." said Tsumi.

"Lord Tsumi, you haven't explained what we are getting from this girl. Couldn't we have taken chakra from any other shinobi?" asked Daigus? He knew that Lord Tsumi was one, who was easily angered, but Daigus had been a loyal servant of his and since their plan was going so well, maybe he would fill Daigus in on the plan.

"Because Daigus, this is one of the few who had the skill and the talent to be trained by one of the Legendary Sanin. That is due in part to a special sort of chakra that only a few have ever possessed. It is thanks to this chakra and the left over remains of the Akasuki's spy Zetsu, that we will be able to take our revenge on the Land of Fire.

Suddenly a loud sound began to emanate from the console. "What is that?" said Daigus.

"It is the proximity alarm. Someone has just breached the outer perimeter." said Tsumi as he pressed a button on the console. A picture of two figures appeared in front of the two shadow shinobi. "It seems that Konoha has more competent shinobi than I thought. Daigus, I want you and Kino to go and take care of these meddlers; I must have enough time to complete the harvest and combine them with the cells of Zetsu." commanded Tsumi.

"As you command Lord Tsumi." said Daigus disappearing into the shadows.

"Soon my dear, soon you will fulfill my grand design and help me to take my ultimate revenge."

To be continued…

Here is the next chapter. I apologize if this chapter seems rushed; it has been an interesting last few days. Anyway reviews are always appreciated and I promise a good fight scene will be coming in the next chapter.


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